6 of the best budget smartphones

6 of the best budget smartphones

Just because you’ve only got £200 to spend doesn’t mean you have to settle for the smartphone equivalent of a cup on a string. Budget phones are improving faster than the big shots, with decent cameras, premium builds and new-fashioned 18:9 screens not out of the question. It’s becoming less a question of whether you can afford the pricey model splashed across billboards all over town, and more: why would you? Here’s a round-up of our favourite affordable phones available right now.

Honor 9 Lite (£169)

You don’t often see a phone at this price with a glass back and aluminium sides, or an 18:9 Full HD screen and dual cameras on the back, but in terms of hardware per pound Honor’s 9 Lite is currently the best you can get. That doesn’t mean there aren’t a couple of niggles. Its Kirin processor can only just keep up with the demand when you play high-end games, battery life could be better, and the EMUI software might take some tweaks to get it how you like it but people will think it cost you three times more than it did. ★★★★★

Motorola Moto G6 Play (£170)

If battery life is top of your shopping list, the Moto G6 Play’s 4000mAh battery lasts a solid day and a half. It even supports fast charging. But it’s not just a no-frills workhorse. The 5.7in Play has a rear fingerprint scanner, splash-proofing and 32GB storage. It’s made of plastic rather than metal or glass and the 1440×720 screen isn’t as sharp as the Honor’s but with a decent camera and a capable CPU, it’s still the affordable phone we’d recommend to many people. ★★★★★

Nokia 6 (£176)

“Solid” is the word that suits the Nokia 6 best. An aluminum body so sturdy you could use it to break open a coconut, dependable battery life and a mid-range Snapdragon 630 CPU make it a phone you can rely on. With flagships moving towards taller displays, the Nokia 6’s standard 16:9 widescreen will look a bit old-fashioned in a year or two. But if you’re shopping for a budget smartphone, looking like you’ve got the latest and greatest probably isn’t a huge consideration for you. ★★★★

Honor 7X (£178)

If you want as much screen as possible per pound, the Honor 7X’s 18:9, 5.93in offering is a good chunk larger than anything else on this list. Its 16MP camera is much higher-res than most phones in its class, although colours tend to look a bit muted and it’s not great in low light. Despite a 3300mAh battery, you might need to give it a top-up before bedtime but it looks and feels great, with the curved aluminium giving it an older-gen iPhone feel. ★★★★

Motorola Moto G5 (£109)

It might’ve been succeeded by the G6 but the Moto G5 is still a rock-bottom wonder. The 1080p screen is sharp and pretty punchy-looking, it runs unfettered Android apart from a couple of useful little tweaks, and despite the entry-level octa-core CPU, it feels pretty snappy too. There’s even a fingerprint scanner on the front. Its camera is a solid but not mind-blowing 13MP jobbie on the back and a 5MP one on the front, but to get something much better you’ll have to spend £60-100 more. That’s a lot when we’re talking about a phone this price. ★★★★★

Wileyfox Swift 2X (£177)

Wileyfox’s Swift 2X is getting on a bit and it’s not that easy to find any more but its dark blue aluminium back makes it one of the nicer-looking budget phones going. You get a solid 5.2in 1080p screen and a fairly loud speaker, but the 16MP camera isn’t the best. There’s some shutter lag and it’s not much use in low light unless you switch on the flash, but if you’d rather have a phone people can’t identify from 50 paces, you could do worse than a Wileyfox. ★★★★